Amethyst Shards – Robyn Sullivan by David Sandum
“Thy Kingdom Come….”
Isabel was remembering back 30 years. It was the 80s and Isabel was a new bride. Her home was a 2nd floor perch in a building that had been previously condemned for a fire. If you raised the edges of the carpet, you could see the charred joists. The neighborhood wasn’t the worst in town, but far from the best. The neighborhood had been started by Armenian immigrants and Armenian pride could be seen everywhere. The grand basilica that was full to the brim each week, the best fish restaurant that was routinely reviewed by food magazines and a bakery that perfumed the air all night, every night.
Every married couple goes through that period of adjustment when they’re newly weds, but Isabel and her husband had been dumped in the deep end of the pool. Their new jobs occupied every waking moment,”alone time” was at a premium and sometimes sleep was a stranger. They were young and adaptable, though.
By the time Christmas rolled around, they were ready for some family time and Isabel was in charge of getting everything ready for the trip back home. Her husband’s schedule at the hospital was hectic to say the least.
“Sorry, honey. It’s been insane at the hospital. People have starting dumping Mommy and Daddy at the hospital.”, he said.
“Huh?”
“When people want to travel on the holidays, they give their elderly relatives too much or no medication so they’ll go into failure and have to be admitted to the hospital. Their know their relatives will get good care and they get a 5 day break.”
Isabel’s eyes were like saucers.
“They deliberately withold medications their parents need?”, Isabel whispered.
“Or feed them a meal filled with salt and sugar and double dose them with their meds. Mama goes into a coma and the family goes to DisneyWorld.” he sighed as he slipped off his shoes.
The shoes sounded like explosions as they hit the floor. Isabel had never heard of such casual cruelty. Her husband must be exagerating.
“They’re poisoning their loved ones? Can’t you do anything? Can’t they prove abuse against these people?” Isabel whispered.
‘”Can try. Proving that one person is poisoning another is virtually impossible. Especially in cases like this. We can report them to DSS, but it’s hard to establish a case.”
Isabel see-sawed between periods of silence and periods of argument with her exhausted husband. Why was it so hard to stop these people? Why weren’t they prosecuted? Why did they DO this? How long has this been going on? But Isabel’s husband was in the business of patching up the damage that these monsters caused and it occupied 16 hours of every day of the week. He needed sleep to fight the fight next day and Isabel’s questions would have to go unanswered. As it turned out, her questions would go unanswered for 30 years.